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Leland Stottlemeyer
Captain Leland Stottlemeyer is a police officer played by Ted Levine. He is a captain in the San Francisco police department, and a longtime (if long-suffering) friend of Adrian Monk from their days on the force together. His assistant, and source of much strife, is Lieutenant Randy Disher. Relationship with Adrian Monk In the early episodes of the show especially, there is a certain degree of tension between the two. Stottlemeyer is somewhat antagonistic toward Monk, as he resents being forced (frequently by powers higher than he, such as the Mayor or the Police Commissioner) into calling on Monk's assistance, and is frequently exasperated by Monk's many quirks. Also inherent in this hostility is a certain degree of jealousy; Stottlemeyer appears only too aware that he is not nearly the detective that Monk is. He is also skeptical of Monk's ability to perform as a police officer, aware that Monk's psychological problems are a great handicap in the high-stress life of the police department; in the episode Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival, he is forced to betray Monk by honestly revealing his misgivings about allowing Monk back into the police department to the panel evaluating Monk's request. Despite these tensions, however, Stottlemeyer also has a great deal of sympathy and respect for Monk; even Stottlemeyer cannot deny Monk's abilities. Once convinced of the validity of one of Monk's theories, Stottlemeyer always proves a staunch ally in apprehending the culprit. A turning point for the character came in the second season episode Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife, when Stottlemeyer's own wife Karen is seriously injured and put in a coma. Though she recovers, Stottlemeyer is left with a taste of the kind of pain Monk lives with, and becomes far more sympathetic and respectful to him, if still easily exasperated by Monk's more extreme idiosyncrasies. Another example of Stottlemeyer's loyalty as a friend came in Mr. Monk in Manhattan, with the captain assisting in Monk's continuing investigation of Trudy's murder. He goes with Monk to New York City to follow up on a clue, and harshly confronts a New York City police captain for concealing information that was essential to solving the murder of his "friend's wife," remarking that that was the only thing he cared about at the time. Romantic relationships and family In Mr. Monk and the Captain's Marriage, Stottlemeyer believes that his wife, Karen, is having an affair. At the end of the episode it's revealed that she isn't having an affair, but instead is filing for divorce. The episode ends with Stottlemeyer walking out the door with his suitcases. During this episode he receives a yo-yo in anger management class that he can be seen with in later episodes. He has two children, Jared and Max. A woman, Linda Fusco, falls in love with him in Mr. Monk, Private Eye. She returns in Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan and again in Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend, where she is arrested by Stottlemeyer, for murder. We learn by the end of the episode that he was going to propose to her during their trip to Hawaii which they would have left for that night, he throws the ring into the ocean saying that it was "nothing—just a rock." Trivia *Stottlemeyer drives a black 2002 Ford Crown Victoria issued by the SFPD. It has a red rotating light on the dash board. *Stottlemeyer is 5'11" *When the first two letters of Disher's first and last name (Disher's original last name being Deacon), are paired with the first two letters of Leland Stottlemeyer's first and last names, the result is Lestrade. Lestrade was the police contact in many of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. *In a webisode Stottlemeyer says that he has an older brother named Mark who is involved in him becoming a police officer. *He is 51 at the start of the show. *He plays the guitar.